Editing Fee tail (section)

==History==
Fee tail was established during [[feudal]] times by [[landed gentry]] to attempt to ensure that the high social standing of the family, as represented by a single patriarch, continued indefinitely. The concentration of the family's wealth into the hands of a single representative was essential to support this  process. Unless the heir had himself inherited the personal and intellectual strengths of the original great patriarch, often a great warrior, which alone had brought him from obscurity to greatness, he would soon sink again into obscurity, and required wealth to maintain his social standing. This feature of English gentry and aristocracy differs from the aristocracy which existed in pre-[[French Revolution|Revolution]] France, where all sons of a nobleman inherited his title and were thus inescapably members of a separate noble caste in society. Little-known, France then had one of the lowest ratios of noble families to population, in Europe. The accepted rule was however largely compensated by written or notarized wills which allowed fathers to favour, within certain limits, a first-born son. In England, [[primogeniture]] provided that an estate would be inherited entirely by the first-born legitimate son of a nobleman and that, accordingly, subsequent sons were born as mere gentlemen and [[commoner]]s.  Without the support of wealth, these younger sons might quickly descend into obscurity, and often did. On this eldest son was concentrated the honour of the family, and to him alone was granted all its wealth to support his role in that regard, by the process of the fee tail.

The effects of English primogeniture and entail have been significant plot details or themes in a number of notable works of English literature.<ref>See generally, Zouheir Jamoussi, ''Primogeniture and entail in England: A survey of their history and representation in literature'' (1999).<br /></ref> (See some examples cited below.)

===Statute of Westminster 1285===
The [[Statute of Westminster 1285|Statute of Westminster II]], passed in 1285, created and fixed the form of this estate. The new law was also formally called the statute ''[[De Donis Conditionalibus]]'' (Concerning Conditional Gifts).

===Opponents===
Fee tail was  never popular with the monarchy, the merchant class and many holders of entailed estates themselves who wished to sell or divide their land.{{cn|date=November 2023}}

===Abolition===
Fee tail as a legal [[estate (law)|estate]] in England was abolished by the [[Law of Property Act 1925]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Law|first1=Jonathan|title=A Dictionary of Law|date=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0199664924|page=258|edition=Eighth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nTrvBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA258|access-date=16 April 2015}}</ref> However, they continued to exist as equitable interests (see {{section link|#Continuing use}} below).

===Continuing use===
A fee tail can still exist in England and Wales as an equitable interest, behind a strict settlement; the legal estate is vested in the current tenant for life or other person immediately entitled to the income, but on the basis that any capital money arising must be paid to the settlement trustees. A tenant in tail in possession can bar his fee tail by a simple disentailing deed, which does not now have to be enrolled. A tenant in tail in reversion (i.e., a [[future interest]] where the property is subject to prior life interest) needs the consent of the life tenant and any 'special protectors' to vest a [[reversion (law)|reversionary]] fee simple in himself. Otherwise he can only create a [[base fee]]; a base fee only confers a right to the property on its owner, when its creator would have become entitled to it; if its creator dies before he would have received it, the owner of the base fee gets nothing.

No new fees tail can now be created following the [[Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996]].<ref>{{cite legislation UK |type=act |year=1996 |chapter=47 |schedule=1 |act=Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996}}</ref>

In the U.S., [[conservation easement]]s are a form of entail still in use.{{cn|date=December 2024}}